by Andrew Chalk
Today, the Mayor of Dallas ordered all bars and restaurant dining rooms to close at midnight Monday 16th. The order is in effect for an indefinite period and follows closure orders sweeping across the country.
Some people hope that the order will last for only a few days, but it could last until next spring, if extrapolations from Europe are in any way representative. The silver grail of a vaccine for COVID-19 (the technical name for coronavirus) is likely a year to eighteen months off.
The effect of the closure is a greater threat to Dallas restaurants than anything they, as an industry, have ever experienced. Realistically, even a closure of a few weeks could result in a fifth of restaurants going out of business. Imagine, walk down the street and one out of every five restaurants is permanently closed, with repercussions on customers, employees, backers, and the other properties in the neighborhood.
With consequences so dire we, as ordinary restaurant visitors, may feel helpless to assist. However, not so fast. Restaurants can still deliver, serve at the drive-thru, and drop off at the curb. So if customers who previously went to restaurants for their food have their food brought to them by one of these routes, the massive drop in business at those restaurants can be mitigated, if not prevented. Some restaurants will reassign servers to do delivery, maintaining their incomes. Others will use third-party delivery services. With respect to the latter, a big shout out to Uber whose UberEats service is waiving delivery fees (although not service fees or small order fees). They could not have picked a better time.
So…
Order in;
Get take-out;
Pick up ‘at the curb’;
Drive the drive-thru;
You get the food you love, and your restaurant sticks around for the long haul.